08-03-14The great Indian election season has started. The Chief Election Commissioner has announced the General Elections 2014.

Something new has happened this season. The Congress party has beat BJP in announcing its candidate for Bilaspur constituency. Karuna Shukla, has been selected to contest from Bilaspur as the Congress candidate.

The niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Karuna Shukla was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) until 25 October 2013. She has quit the party after the BJP had neglected her for the 2013 state elections.

She had joined the Indian National Congress on 27 Feb 2014.

She had won the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 from Janjgir constituency as a BJP candidate. In 2009, she had again contested as a BJP candidate from Korba but lost to Congress party's Charan Das Mahant.

09-12-13Amar Agrawal has once again won from the Bilaspur Seat, after the results were announced on 8-Dec-2013. He has
defeated his nearest rival Vani Rao by 15599 votes and increased his margin of victory by more than 5000
votes over his 2008 win.

Amar Agrawal has bag the Bilaspur seat for the 4th time in
succession.

This talks volumes of his popularity, especially in a scenario where several stalwarts have lost from their
respective constituencies. The election results have increased the political stature of Amar Agrawal in the state.

Some of the big names in Chhattisgarh politics that have lost in Chhattisgarh include...

26-05-13Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is all set to release the result of class XII of 2013.

The results will be available starting from 10am of 27-May-2013 on the web-site of CBSE - http://cbseresults.nic.in. The website also provides a link that can been be used by schools to register to get school-wise results by email.

CBSE exams for Class XII were held in the month of March 2013.

CBSE has also made arrangements to get the results by telephone (IVR System) or by SMS.

Results through IVRS will cost Rs.0.30 per minute. The numbers given by CBSE for this are 011-24300699 of National Informatics Center.
MTNL Users can call 011-28127030, while for others are as below...
5432128 for MTS subscribers
1255536 for BSNL subscribers (Outside Delhi – Landline & Mobile)
54321223 for Tata Teleservice (Indicom, Docomo) subscribers
5207011 for Airtel subscribers

CBSE has also informed that Rates for SMS for registration &
communication of result per roll no. will be Rs.1.00.

21-10-11Allahabad High Court, today (21-Oct-2011) set aside the acquisition of land in three villages of Noida, Greater Noida and Noida Extension. The farmers of some other villages in Gautam Budh Nagar will receive enhanced compensation.

The decision was given by the 3-judge Division Bench comprising of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice S. U. Khan and Justice V. K. Shukla.The bench ruled on a writ petition filed by 491 farmers challenging the acquisition of more than 3000 hectares of land by the state government.

The court has ruled that the affected farmers are entitled to restoration of their land subject to the return of any compensation they have already received.

The court seriously considered the fact that the land was acquired by the state government by invoking the urgency clause, for the purpose of planned industrial development, but was later transferred to private builders for construction of residential complexes.

The Allahabad High Court, had earlier in May this year, also turned down the acquisition of 156 hectares of land in Shahberi village which was also similarly acquired and turned over to private builders.

04-10-11Anna Hazare has said that he will campaign against the Congress in the 5 states that are scheduled to go to polls next year, if Jan-Lokpal Bill is not passed during the Winter Session of Parliament.

This ultimatum has been given by India's anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare to the Government of India. He has also said that if his demands are not met, he will sit on a three day fast in Lucknow starting on the eve of the Uttar Pradesh State Elections. He was speaking at a press conference in Ralegan Siddhi.

It may be recalled that Anna Hazare had withdrawn his 12-day hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi after the parliament unanimously passed a resolution accepting the points laid-out in the Jan-Lokpal Bill. The Parliament had indicated that there was a need only to iron out the constitutionally unacceptable terms and rework the legal language. The Jan-Lokpal Bill had been sent to the Standing Committee for consideration alongwith the resolution of the parliament.

Anna Hazare enjoys the support of the common man who had respected Anna's wishes and ensured that there was no violence during the 12-day fasting which had started on 16-August.

16-08-11Anna Hazare has been arrested by Delhi Police from his residence at Mayur Vihar today morning as he was preparing to leave for today's fast.

Anna Hazare and two of his team members courted arrest outside the flat in which they were staying after the police prevented them from coming out. The event occurred early in the morning (around 8am IST).

The veteran crusader against corruption in India was scheduled to start his indefinite hunger strike today morning at J. P. Park in New Delhi.

Anna and his team have been demanding that the government enact a strong Lokpal Bill. He had earlier gone on fast in April this year on the same issue.

He had broken his fast after the government had assured him that a Lokpal bill would be enacted soon. A joint committee of government representatives - Ministers and members of Anna's team was consitituted to formulate the draft of the bill.

The relations between the Ministers and Anna's team had soured by June. The government went ahead and tabled its version of the Lokpal Bill in the Parliament during the monsoon session.

Anna and his team had rejected the government's version of the bill saying that it was too dilute and had no teeth. They have been since protesting for a strong Lokpal Bill.

06-06-11Baba Ramdev's hunger strike on the issue of corruption and black money has shaken the UPA led government at the center. The government has initiated extreme action and did all in its power to prevent the Baba from proceeding.

The hunger strike which began on the morning of Saturday 04-June-2011 was abruptly interrupted by what is being termed as the most inhuman act of the Delhi Police in independent India.

Late in the night, after midnight when most of the protesters were sleeping the police displayed their strength. The police entered the tent at Ramlila Ground in large numbers and beat up many of the followers of Baba Ramdev, including women and children. Some of the beaten up people are critically injured and had to be admitted to the hospitals.

The police took the Baba into custody and evicted him out of Delhi.

In the follow-up of this police action the government has ended up mustering up a lot of support for Baba Ramdev and his campaign from all over the country. Anna Hazare and the some of the veteran leaders of Indian politics have likened this police action to that of Jaliawala Bagh. Some of the younger leaders said it resembled the Emergency that had rocked the nation in 1975.

One thing is certain that the UPA government has lost the support of most of the common man, who has seen it actively stalling on all issues of corruptions be it 2G scam, CWG scam, Lokpal Bill.

11-03-1133 foot high Tsunami wave struck north eastern Japan after a massive earthquake, today. Several reports have already classified the quake has the biggest of the decade.

US Geological Survey had earlier reported it as a 7.9 event at around 11:15am Indian Time, but later upgraded it to 8.9. The quake occurred as a result of thrust faulting on or near the subduction zone interface plate boundary between the Pacific and North America plates.

The epicenter of the quake was located about 400 kms from Tokyo.

USGS says that the earthquake today was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on 9 Mar 2011 with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from today's quake, and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day.

Today's massive quake was followed by a huge tsunami which hit the Japanese coastal areas. Television news has showed large scale devastation in the wake of the tsunami

Ships, cars, buildings were swept away by the huge wall of water. Fire and water and destruction could be seen every where.

It is too early to talk about the quantum of loss to life and property. Tsunami alert has been issued in several countries.

07-03-11It was completely Yuvraj Singh's day at Bengaluru on Sunday. His all-rounder performance steered India to victory. He took taking 5 wickets and scored an unbeaten 50 in the match against Ireland at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Ireland were put to bat first by Mahendra Singh Dhoni after India won the toss. The match was viewed to be significant because of the stunning victory Ireland had claimed against England in its previous match.

But, Ireland was not able to spin-up any surprises this time. The Indian bowlers were able to pack-up the Irish side for 207 runs in 47.5 overs.

Yuvraj claimed 5 wickets, including that of Kevin O'Brien. Zaheer Khan took 3, Munaj Patel claimed 1 wicket and there was 1 run out.

In the second innings of the game, Indian opener Virendra Sehwag, lost his wicket to Johnston in the 1st ball of the second over. After that India lost 4 more wickets at regular intervals and successfully achieved the target.

210 runs were scored off 46 overs for the loss of 5 wickets. The match ended in India's favour with Yuvraj becoming the team's highest scorer at 50 runs in 75 balls.

06-03-11Sunday, 06-Mar-2011 - All Indian cricket fans are eagerly clued to their television sets, watching the match Ireland v/s India at the Bengaluru. The match has become especially interesting after Ireland humbled the English team.

The match has already started at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium at 2:30 in the afternoon.

India won the toss and opted to field first. Ireland innings has started on a bad note. It has lost two wickets early in the game and has been able to garner a meager score of 11 rungs at the end of 5 overs. Paul Stirling returned to the pavilion for a duck, where as Ed Joyce lost his wicket at a personal score of 4 runs.

Both the wickets were taken by the Indian pace bowler Zahir Khan.

Surely, a lot of expectations once again ride on the shoulders of Kevin O'Brien, the man who blasted the English bowlers for a whopping 113 in just 63 balls in the team's last match.

At the time of this writing Niall O'Brien and William Potterfield were on the field.